Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/148

122 ITALIAN WARS. I'ARi On the 6th of October, therefore, the Great Captain broke up his camp at Castellone, and, !«auGer- abandoning; the whole region north of the Garigli- ano to the enemy, struck into the interior of the country, and took post at San Germano, a strong place on the other side of the river, covered by the two fortresses of Monte Casino'^ and Rocca Secca. Into this last he threw a bodv of determined men under Villalba, and waited calmly the approach of the enemy. It was not long before the columns of the latter were descried in full march on Ponte Corvo, at a few miles' distance only on the opposite side of the Garigliano. After a brief halt there, they trav- ersed the bridge before that place, and advanced confidently forward in the expectation of encoun- tering little resistance from a foe so much their inferior. In this they were mistaken ; the garrison of Rocca Secca, against which they directed their arms, handled them so roughly, that, after in vain endeavouring to carry the place in two desperate assaults, the Marquis of Mantua resolved to aban- don the attempt altogether, and, recrossing the river, to seek a more practicable point for his pur- pose lower down. " which is to be inferred only from martyrs, and other saintly relics ; the scattered estimates, careless a division of spoil probably not en- and contradictory as usual, of the va- tircly satisfactory to its reverend rious detachments which joined it. inmates. Giovio, Vita Magni Gon- IC The Spaniards carried Monte salvi, fol. 262. Casino by storm, and with sacrile- l' Chronica del Gran Capitan, fioiis violence plundered the Bene- lib. 2, cap. 102. — Ulloa, Vita di ictinc monastery of all ils costly Carlo V., fol. 21. — Guicciardini, plate. They were compelled, how- Istoria, tom. i. lib. 6, pp. 320, 327. ever, to respect the bones of the — Peter Martyr, Opus Epist.,epist.